president george w. bush had a poor performance against john kerry and came back strong. last night the president was mocking his own performance. you have to accept you didn't do well, and come back and bring it to romney. but he's going to have to do that. >> okay. mitt romney, on the other hand, had a strong showing. what does he need to do to maintain any momentum he might have picked up? >> i think this presents the romney campaign with something they needed. they needed to hit the reset button. they needed to make it race closer. it was starting to slip away. now we have a new race. everyone is paying attention now. a lot of people i think that can be swayed and maybe some were swayed during the debate, he needs to, i think, win probably the next two, or at least have strong showings. he just needs to keep that momentum. avoid gaffes that have plagued his campaign. >> on a personal note, they were trying to soften him, make him more like, you know, every day person out there. the comment that i have five sons, i know about you -- i thought this was personal and a go